The top was made of European Spruce.

This is where the project became confusing. The plans from Roy Courtnall said to bend each half of the top to create an arch at the bridge position before joining. I didn't expect that complication.

I found some makers of Maccaferri type guitars on the web and emailed asking their advice on this point. 
I received very helpful, detailed advice from each of the makers, and found that opinion was divided as to whether it was necessary to heat bend the arch in the top (pliage), or to form the arch with curved bracing.

I must give a big thanks to Michael Dunn, John LeVoi and David Hodson for being so helpful with their expert advice.

I decided to try the simpler approach on this guitar, so the arch was formed by braces carved with an arc 8mm high at the bridge area - using a curved rod, as described in William Cumpiano's excellent book.

Here's a shot of the braces after gluing and shaping their outer edges. A point that must be important to the final sound is the amount of scalloping at the brace ends, but I found very little information on the actual dimensions, so in the end it was a matter of uninformed guesswork.

The rosette wasn't particularly difficult to make. I made a hardboard form and wrapped the strips around it to glue up. The coloured blocks were a bit of a misunderstanding though - I asked for strips of coloured purfling, which the suppliers didn't have, but they did have strips of ready-assembled multicoloured purfling. I assumed the colours would be running lengthways and look authentic to the Maccaferri, not in blocks. But I used it anyway.

When it was done I stuck it in position with just a few tiny spots of glue and marked its outline with a scalpel. The rosette came off afterwards quite easily and it was a matter of carefully chiselling out the channel by hand. Then the rosette was glued in. I was quite relieved that it fitted nicely after scraping it flush.

Here's a picture of the bracing layout.

The bottom pair are curved to form an arch in the top.

The other option was to mark a crease between them and heat each half on a hot pipe to get the arch before joining and bracing.

Later plans from R.F.Charle also refer to bending a crease (pliage) at the bridge area.
I'm trying this on the next guitar, which is well under way.

(Click on the pictures for larger versions)